It's 4:03 and I Can't Sleep
by annam8td
Summary: Kitty and Lance are woken up in the middle of the night, only to hear some music and talk on the phone. lamest summary of life, story isn't as bad as it sounds R and R please


A/N: So I'm trying another type of songfic, but the basic idea for this story came to me while driving. I should really stop telling people that, since that's how most of my ideas come to be . I own nothing.

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Kitty rolls over in her bed, struggles to open her eyes and see her alarm clock; 3:56 am. She groans, remembering that she had come home from work and flopped down on her bed a little over three hours ago. She also remembers the stressful shift she worked in the nearby hospital, remembers how she and her long term, long-distance boyfriend, Lance Alvers, had not talked that night. The stress of the miles between them was starting to take its toll, starting to change the way they communicated with one another. They hadn't spoken as much as before in the past few weeks, but she didn't want to think about that now.

She tries to close her eyes, to numb her active mind, she tosses and turns. Realizing that sleep will not come so easily to her now, she lay on her back and stares at the ceiling. Though she now had her own queen-sized bed, Kitty couldn't quite help from containing herself to the right side of the bed. When she and Lance lived together back in New York, he chose to sleep on the left side, and she the right. The two would place their hands in the middle of their bodies, grasping until they fell asleep. Sleep seemed to come so easily to her then, rather than her tossing and turning and sleeping for only a few short hours at a time. She places her arm in the middle of the bed, hoping to feel a sense of the calm Lance had provided her with, even though he was no longer beside her. No such luck.

Pulling back the covers, Kitty walks out of her room and towards the kitchen, thinking that tea might help her sleep. The metal of the tea kettle clangs as she lifts it from the kitchen cabinet, gives her a small head ache. Rather than moving through her apartment in silence, Kitty switches on her radio, turns the volume dial down. Tuning the dial to the clearest station, Kitty leans against her counter and waits for the water to boil. The quiet music seems to fill the kitchen more than the steam from the kettle.

_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, if you only knew_

Kitty opens up another cabinet, pulls out a tea bag and a mug. The song seems to calm her, as does the smell of the tea as she pours the hot water into the porcelain mug. She glances at her the clock on her microwave; sure enough, it is 4:03. Standing in the kitchen, she takes sips of her piping hot pomegranate tea and listens to the rest of the song.  
**  
**_If you only knew  
How many times I counted  
All the words that went wrong  
If you only knew  
How I refuse to let you go,  
Even when you're gone  
I don't regret any days I  
Spent, nights we shared,  
Or letters that I sent_

Lance opens his eyes and grunts at his ceiling, suddenly awake from his unconscious state. He swings his legs over the left side of the bed, runs his fingers through his long brown hair, stretches and yawns. He remembers the nights that Kitty had woken up after only a few hours of sleep, how she would make herself tea to try and calm her mind. Being one of those people who is fully alert and has no chance of sleeping again once being woken up, Lance decides to give tea s chance. Thinking of Kitty suddenly makes Lance's heart and head feel heavy. The two hadn't had a chance to speak that night, due to her work schedule. He sighs. But then again, the two hadn't been able to speak much since they moved out of the apartment they shared just a few weeks ago.

Lance digs through his drawers and cabinets, trying to find everything necessary to make tea. Failing to find a tea kettle, Lance settled for a sauce pan for boiling water. Digging behind cans of coffee and other drink mixes, Lance finds a bag of pomegranate tea. Lance is hesitant, having never tasted pomegranate before. It's better than coffee, Lance tells himself as he pours water in the pan. Besides, Kitty always drank this stuff, he reminds himself. After standing and waiting for the water to boil, Lance combines the water and tea bag in a coffee mug, heads back to his bed.

Lance takes a quick sip from the coffee mug, started by the temperature and surprisingly sweet taste. After blowing out some of the steam, and getting used to the strange flavor, Lance rests his head on his pillows once more, hoping for sleep to overtake him. After what seems like hours of trying to sleep, Lance decides to sit up, drink more tea, and listen to the radio on his alarm clock. Drinking from the mug with his right hand, he places his left hand in the middle of the bed. When the two had lived together, Lance and Kitty often fell asleep with their hands clasped. It made him feel at ease, knowing that someone who loved him lay beside him, wanted him stay at her side. The music from the alarm clock fills the tiny bedroom.

_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, if you only knew  
_**  
**Lance glances at his alarm clock. It's not 4:03 as the song claims, but rather 5:07 in the morning. He takes a sip of tea and sighs, feeling no more at ease than when he woke up and had the idea of making tea. He picks up the cell phone next to his alarm clock, contemplates calling Kitty. What are the odds she would be awake the same time as he? With the time difference (New York being one hour ahead of Chicago), as well as the fact that Kitty was scheduled to work the night before, the odds of her being awake at the same time as him are slim. But what's the worst that could happen? he asks himself. She could wake up and angrily answer the phone, she could wake up and ignore his call, or she could not hear her phone at all and wake up with a new voicemail. Worth a shot, Lance tells himself as he dials her cell phone number.

_If you only knew  
I still hold onto the letters  
You returned  
You help me live and learn_

Kitty sits on her small balcony, enjoying the cool night air. Normally she would have gone back to sleep after drinking her tea, but she chose to make herself another pot of tea. She takes a deep breath, inhales the scent of warm pomegranate, thinking that she'll spend the rest of her day in bed. Her cell phone vibrates, and she lifts it up to read the screen. CALL FROM LANCE3 she reads before pushing the talk button.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hey Kitty," Lance greets on the other line, "Didn't think you'd be awake at this hour."

"Like, I couldn't sleep," she explains. "I figured I would make some tea and get some fresh air before going back to bed." She sips her tea. "Like, what about you? You're not exactly what I call a morning person."

"I couldn't sleep either," he confesses. "I uh, tried to make some tea to calm down, but it's not really working too well."

"You…made…tea?" Kitty asks, almost choking on her own drink. Kitty had never been able to get Lance to take a sip of her hot brew, so the thought of him drinking his own cup of tea baffles her.

"Uh, yeah," he sounds embarrassed. "You always made it when you couldn't sleep and, well, I figured I would try it. I don't know how you find this stuff calming."

"Like, I'm not quite sure why either," she admits. "I just like the taste of it is all."

"Eh to each their own," Lance says, shrugging his shoulders. "Listen Kitty, I'm sorry we haven't been able to talk much…"

"I'm sorry too," she says. Kitty listens closely to the other end of the line, hears Lance's radio in the background playing a familiar melody.**  
**  
_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, believe in is you  
I still believe in you  
Oh, if you only knew_

"Hey, I was listening to that song a little bit ago," she tells him before humming the melody.

"Really?" Lance asks. What are the odds?

"Yeah, it, like, made me think of you. Of us," she says, her voice as sweet as her drink.

"Howso?" Lance enquires.

"I still believe that we can make this work, you know, this whole 'long-distance' thing," she divulges.

Lance takes a deep breath, "Me too." He hears her yawn on the other line, catches the contagious act.

"We should get some sleep," Kitty says, walking back into her apartment to place the mug in the kitchen sink.

"Sounds like a plan," Lance agrees, stretching and placing his mug on the nightstand near his side of the bed. He hears her walk around the apartment, pull back her covers, and climb into bed, hears the soft _coosh_ of her head hitting the pillow.

"Like, g'night Lance," she says sleepily.

"Night Kitty," he replies, situating himself in bed. "Love you."

"Love you too," she says as the two press their "call end" buttons simultaneously.

The two lie on their beds, on opposite sides, and lay their hands in the middle of the bed, knowing that the one they love still loves them back.

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A/N: lame ending I know, but I think it's kinda cute. Schmaltzy, but cute.


End file.
